A U.S. military transport helicopter crashed near Baghdad on Wednesday, the fifth such aircraft lost in Iraq in three weeks, an army spokesman said. Iraqi witnesses reported seeing an aircraft in trouble during gunfire from the ground. U.S. military spokesman Major- General William Caldwell told reporters it would be inappropriate to talk about casualties. "We have a CH-46 that is down," Caldwell said, referring to the twin-rotor Sea Knight, the Marine version of the Chinook, which can carry up to 25 passengers and four crew. "We have a quick reaction force on site." U.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing to launch a major offensive against militants in Baghdad that is regarded as a last-ditch attempt to prevent all-out civil war between politically dominant Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. The U.S. military said "some new elements" of the plan had begun to be implemented although Iraqi officials said preparations were still being carried out.... http://abcnews.go.com

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the new Iraq strategy could fail unless more civilian agencies step forward quickly to carry out plans for reconstruction & political development. The complaints reflect fresh tensions between the Pentagon & the State Dept over personnel demands that have fallen most heavily on the military. But they also draw on a deeper reservoir of concerns among officers who have warned that a military buildup alone cannot solve Iraq’s problems, & who now fear that the military will bear a disproportionate burden if Bush’s strategy falls short. Among particular complaints, the officers cited a request from the office of Secretary of State Rice that military personnel temporarily fill more than one-third of 350 new State Dept jobs in Iraq that are to be created under the new strategy. They expected Bureaucrats to risk their ass? This is a great strategy...http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt879.html

A special investigation on the effects of depleted uranium reveals the Army made a tape warning of the effects of depleted uranium which was never shown to troops despite the fact the Pentagon knew the agent to be potentially deadly, CNN reports Tuesday. Depleted uranium -- or DU -- was used in the Gulf War as a projectile that could penetrate tank armor. A group of soldiers are suing the US government because they are sick from exposure; despite the unshown video, the Army denies that depleted uranium represents a serious health risk. CNN reporter Greg Hunter explains. The soldiers "report similar ailments. Painful urination, headaches and joint pain. They say Army doctors blame their symptoms on post traumatic stress. We showed them a tape the Army made in 1995, a tape the Army never distributed. It warned of potential D.U. hazards. The army's expert on D.U. training concedes some information contained on the tape is true. For instance, radioactive particles can be harmful." A doctor who once investigated DU for the Army now believes that the health risks are serious. ...http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_Agent_Orange_tame_compared_to_0206.html

Sen. Joseph Lieberman could have said on Tue that Congress should consider a tax to fund the US illegal war of terror and reduce the need to cut domestic programs to pay for all the borrowed spending. A former Democrat who supports the Iraq war and backs Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional canon fodder to Iraq, The proposed increase in the Pentagon's budget for next fiscal year will squeeze funding for critical domestic programs. "I think we have to start thinking about a war of terror tax," the Israeli Connecticut lawmaker said. "I mean people keep saying we're not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it." "When you put together the (Pentagon) budget and the Homeland Gestapo budgets, we need to ask people to help us in a way that they know when they pay more it will go in Politicians and their henchmen's bank accounts," he should have said during a Senate panel hearing on the defense budget request....http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2007-02-06T182553Z_01_N06252236_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-TAX-TERRORISM.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-3

The Bush administration's $142-billion war budget for next year leaves out money for the planned troop buildup in Iraq, a strong indication that the Pentagon views the increase as a short-term tactic to stem the escalating violence in Baghdad.But Defense officials could not provide assurances Monday that the troop level would fall back again by next year, and acknowledged they may be forced to return to Congress for more money to pay for the extra forces if sectarian conflict continues to rage.In unveiling the Defense Department's budget request, Tina Jonas, the Pentagon budget director, told reporters that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates provided instructions to treat the troop increase as "a near-term initiative" that would not need to be accounted for in the 2008 budget. But Jonas acknowledged those assumptions could change."I think we know that it will be wrong," Jonas said of the war-cost estimate....http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes801.html

Bitter cold and heavy snowfall slapped the upper Midwest and the Northeast on Tuesday, leaving Upstate New Yorkers shoveling out of several feet of fresh snow and prompting city officials to open warming centers for those in need.Low temperatures and slick roads were blamed for at least seven deaths from Michigan to Maryland. The icy weather in the East was expected to remain through most of the week, the National Weather Service said. Along the shores of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, heavy snowfall all morning long left 3 feet or more of fresh snow. Some flurries were due in today. ...http://Bitter cold and heavy snowfall slapped the upper Midwest and the Northeast on Tuesday, leaving Upstate New Yorkers shoveling out of several feet of fresh snow and prompting city officials to open warming centers for those in need.Low temperatures and slick roads were blamed for at least seven deaths from Michigan to Maryland. The icy weather in the East was expected to remain through most of the week, the National Weather Service said. Along the shores of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, heavy snowfall all morning long left 3 feet or more of fresh snow. Some flurries were due in today. ...